Contents

What is the Beta Release?

The Beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 18. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading to the general release of Fedora 18 in the beginning of the next year. We invite you to join us in making Fedora 18 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.

To upgrade to Fedora 18 Beta from previous supported releases, a new tool called Fedup is available, as a replacement for deprecated preugprade and Anaconda installer upgrade method. Check the instructions how to proceed with upgrade: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedUp. The tool is still under active development, please take a look on FedUp FAQ in case of any issues with upgrade process.

Features

This release of Fedora includes a variety of features both over and under the hood that show off the power and flexibility of the advancing state of free software. Here are just a few of the new features:

For users everywhere

Fedora 18 offers a brand-new version of the Gnome desktop, version 3.6, straight from the upstream development process. Updates have also been made to the KDE Plasma Workspaces, XFCE and Sugar desktop environments; additionally, the MATE desktop is available for the first time in Fedora.

Fedora's new installer user interface enhances the anaconda installer with improvements in ease of use and installation.

For developers

For system administrators

Fedora 18 includes the final release of Samba 4, and can be used on an Active Directory domain out of the box. An integrated, new native management software allows you to access data and server information easily.

OpenStack in Fedora 18 has been updated to Folsom, the most recent release by the OpenStack community. This Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform enables the creation and management of cloud infrastructure.

Eucalyptus 3.1, another IaaS platform, is available in Fedora for the first time, and includes the major components of Eucalyptus.

Contributing to Fedora

There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org today!